Category Archives: Life

Wabi Sabi Friendship, Wabi Sabi Love

19 Wednesday Sep 2018

Posted by in Life

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Finding Wabi Sabi was sweet serendipity. Then, it was a home decorating concept, greatly appealing to my sensibility for a natural, earthy approach to home living. Now, it is a way of being that brings naturalness and beauty, a  necessary peace, to my life and relationships.

Wabi Sabi is a Japanese concept, a way of life that “places value on the transient, unfinished and imperfect nature of life. It sees beauty in the rough edges of both people and things. It is at peace with what is. It values all that is real and authentic, finding joy and fulfillment in the good, bad and ugly rather than longing for unattainable fantasies of the ideal.” ¹

We believe in the ideal and flawless, and everywhere we are hounded by the urgency of manicured perfection. Some of the most beautiful words ever written, “Let it be” and “All is well” now feel like pieces of distant wisdom, irrelevant and unattractive to our passion for the idyll. Still, the true and imperfect nature of life remains. We suffer from persistent shortfalls in our relationships. We think we deserve more and so continue to demand more. We and our loves, constantly tugging at each other’s imperfections, in an attempt to wield them into anything but. What toxicity we unknowingly feed each other on such precious, borrowed time. Where is the friendship and what happened to the love?

What if we stopped making demands on the size and shape of our loving? What if we practice friendship to practice love? What if we “love without agenda”²? What if we simply let things be and allowed life to ebb and flow as it should? What if we assured ourselves that all is well and believed it enough to finally see the handwriting of God in everything?

Know that I ventured far enough into my What Ifs to say, each  gives peace and joy and fulfillment. Know that the serendipity of Wabi Sabi is also practical wisdom. Know that love and truth and beauty flow forth and back on the river of imperfection yet never fade. Know that faith moves mountains and God never forsakes.

This is my experience, and quite frankly, here is my heart! I hope it is helpful.

Arno _ Wabi Sabi

¹Jacques, Andrea. Wabi-Sabi Wisdom: Inspiration for an Authentic Life. . Kyosei Press. Kindle Edition.
² Chona Carino Solano

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Spaces, gaps and silences

31 Friday Aug 2018

Posted by in Art, Life

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Four years seems too long, this update is overdue.

I observed that absence gives presence more meaning.  Same with spaces, gaps and silences.  All of them scant in our fashionably loaded schedules these days. How convinced we are that they are intolerable in our conversations, our routines, our weekends. Are they?

A film titled “The Bookshop” based on Penelope Fitzgerald’s book starring Emily Mortimer and Bill Nighy reminded me otherwise.  The writing abounds with beautiful dialogue where gaps and silences hold more meaning than a flurry of words ever could.  I think of painting, and how chiaroscuro, the play of light and shadow mastered so wonderfully by Caravaggio, give paintings precious depth and lifelike qualities. In rendering the absence of light, its presence powerfully transports us to that moment in the life of Christ. We too are filled with awe and terror  like Thomas,  in touching His wounded side.  In music, it is the same.  Silences in orchestral pieces are essential and purposed. By writing gaps for all other instruments during the violin solos, Vivaldi elevated beauty into a sublime symphony that is the Four Seasons.  Hemingway did the same in writing, he carved poignant stories by silencing the unnecessary. “For sale : baby shoes. Never worn.”

We feel this too in life — when we are without something or someone, that absence amplifies the gift of their presence. More so in prayer,  when we lose our words to tears, we find sacred spaces that are Heaven’s touch point.

Sacred spaces, necessary gaps, purposed silences. Attendant absences. They are not intolerable. Let them be our places and points of  finding the essential, the meaningful, and especially, the most beautiful in life.

It has been four years.  I hope you find this useful.